Despite their high performance in the Premier League and Champions League, it seems that Arsenal cannot catch a break this season.
Mikel Arteta’s side have played much better football than last year, but have been just as unlucky, if not more so, when it comes to injuries.
For example, Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke are just some of their stars who have been forced to stay on the sidelines, or still are.
And then, if things couldn’t get any worse, the Gunners will now be without Gabriel Magalhães for up to two months, although Arteta may well have a surprising replacement in mind for the Brazilian.
Arsenal’s record when Gabriel is not playing
It’s no secret that thanks to his impact on both surfaces, Gabriel has become one of Arsenal’s most important players in recent years.
In fact, it’s this ability that led Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher to suggest he could “be considered the most influential player in the Premier League” just last month.
However, how essential is the big Brazilian in Arteta’s side? While this is a pretty tough question to answer, a good way to approach it would be to look at how the team has performed when he hasn’t been on the team over the past two years.
From the 23/24 season, and in all competitions that year, the former LOSC Lille star played 50 matches, including 48 starts, during which he scored four goals, delivered an assist and collected an average of 2.16 points per match.
There were only two matches in which he did not appear: a draw against Fulham and a win against Sheffield United, meaning the team only scored an average of 2 points per game without him.
However, a two-game sample is rather paltry, unlike last season, where he was absent for 16 games, of which the club won only eight, drew five and lost three, meaning the Gunners averaged just 1.81 points per game without the Brazilian in the team.
How did they behave when he played? Well, in all competitions, the Sao Paulo-born titan has played 42 matches, in which he has scored five goals, provided three assists and averaged 1.98 points per game.
|
Arsenal with and without Gabriel |
||
|---|---|---|
|
23/24 |
With |
Without |
|
Games |
50 |
2 |
|
Victories |
34 |
1 |
|
Prints |
6 |
1 |
|
Losses |
10 |
0 |
|
Points per game |
2.16 |
2 |
|
24/25 |
With |
Without |
|
Games |
42 |
16 |
|
Victories |
24 |
8 |
|
Prints |
11 |
5 |
|
Losses |
7 |
3 |
|
Points per game |
1.98 |
1.81 |
|
All statistics via Transfermarkt |
||
Therefore, while there isn’t a massive drop in points per game for Arsenal without Gabriel in the team, there is still a notable one, and with upcoming games against Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, it’s worrying.
However, Arteta has more than enough replacements for his monster centre-back, including one who might come as a bit of a surprise.
Gabriel’s surprise replacement by Arsenal
The consensus among most Arsenal fans currently seems to be that either Riccardo Calafiori or Cristhian Mosquera would be the ideal replacements for Gabriel this weekend.
The former has been in great form all season, and the latter has shown glimpses of real talent when he has stepped up.
However, while either player would make perfect sense, another more surprising option that Arteta could choose is Ben White.
Yes, the former Brighton & Hove Albion man feels like a forgotten man at the moment and has spent most of his time at the club playing at right-back, but the £50million signing could come in and do a job on Sunday.
After all, even though he hasn’t played there regularly for some time – his last start in midfield was in October 2024 – the Englishman was brought in as a central defender and spent the entirety of the 21/22 season playing there and playing well.
In fact, the only reason he was moved to the right was because William Saliba finally got his chance and Gabriel wasn’t suited to playing at full-back at all.
Plus, by facing the Poole-born ace there, Calafiori won’t have to leave a position he’s been incredible in all year, a young Mosquera won’t be thrown into one of the tensest games of the season, and the same could be said for Piero Hincapie.
Finally, and this is particularly relevant to the Spurs game, the 28-year-old is, in the words of journalist Charles Watts, a “master of black magic”.
In other words, he could be the perfect player to get under the skin of Spurs players and either knock them off their game or even get them sent off.
In addition, he has a habit of making life particularly difficult for Guglielmo Vicario.
Ultimately, it would be a surprise and somewhat of a risk, but despite this, Arteta should look to slot White in as Arsenal’s centre-back while Gabriel is out.
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